Tag Archives: garden

What are the best kind of peaches? Imagine a tree full of them just outside your front door. They are nearly ripe, and when you finally get them off the tree to taste, they are best pieces of fruit you ever ate. Now lucky for me, the Anzac Peach tree was in its fourth year this … Continue reading →

Photos taken by Zach Latimore on Finca Idealista Farm, Matagalpa, Nicaragua For most people, coffee grounds represent the “end” of the coffee process. Everything that has happened to those beans since they were picked from the tree has been done with the end goal of roasting them, grinding them, and then brewing coffee with them. … Continue reading →

There is something of a tradition at my place now with freshly picked figs being scoffed in the backyard from the middle of summer. By mid January the fruit darkens a purple stain through the green skin. And there is the matter is getting to them before the birds, which according to my chickens (who … Continue reading →

There are many joys waiting in the Spring garden. The most important one for me is sitting on a log watching it all go by. There is Zen somewhere between chickens scratching at the ground and the hum of a city carried by the wind. Nectar feeding birds fight for the highest branches of the Banksia tree, while … Continue reading →

I always worry about grape vines in the Winter. They look dead for months, just until those leaves burst open into Spring sunshine. In preparation for the demands of the new season, the soil has been improved with basalt dust and vermicast made from coffee grounds and chicken manure. A good dose of fish emulsion just … Continue reading →

Way back in May we had a single Tamarillo fruit left on the tree – and then there was Winter! The Sun is returning to high arcs through the sky, and the wind has become less bitter. Spring and her promise of rebirth has arrived :) So it seems for the Tamarillo, with rapid new growth in … Continue reading →

There was a time when I thought adding lots of mulch to poor quality soil would make for good quality soil. But it didn’t work out that way… What happened was that the 2 inch layer of mulch was cooking in the Summer sun, below which a thick layer of poor quality soil remained, impervious to … Continue reading →